Comparing Assassin’s Creed Altair and Maria to AC Unity Arno and Elise

Assassin’s Creed has both mainline and spin off games that introduce players to a wide variety of characters, all coming from different time periods, backgrounds, and personalities. However, with a common thread being the Creed they find themselves part of (more or less, as more recent Assassin’s Creed games don’t feature the traditional assassin role), players are bound to find some similarities between different protagonists and their stories. Every character’s reason for joining the Creed (or the Hidden Ones, depending on the time period) is unique, but some stories bear a resemblance too close to deny.

That being said, of course no parallel is perfect and the similarities will give way to differences, too. Two stories that similarly parallel each other are that of Altair Ibn-La’Ahad and Maria Thorpe of Assassin’s Creed and Assassin’s Creed Revelations compared to Arno Dorian and Elise de la Serre of Assassin’s Creed Unity. Both male leads ended up falling for Templar women and sought to redeem themselves in the eyes of those they let down. These Assassin’s Creed characters are all unique in their own ways, but have some common threads too.

In the Assassin’s Creed series, there are few romantic storylines that are spread across multiple games like Altair and Maria’s. Assassin’s Creed Bloodlines really goes in-depth into how the two characters continue to get to know each other and fall in love, but it’s not really as romantic as it seems. In fact, Maria is still a Templar and actively fights against Altair for the majority of the game, causing him to capture her and keep her prisoner.

It’s during their time together that they get to understand each other on a deeper level, though Maria does evade him a few times. Their “love story,” if it can be called one, definitely isn’t very romantic and could probably be likened to Stockholm Syndrome. Toward the end of Bloodlines is when Maria denounces the Templars and ends up helping Altair, but part of her leaving the Templars is because its leader, Armand Bouchart, never liked her and even accused her of working for the Assassins, even when her loyalty was only to the Templars.

Maria fights Bouchart before she gets injured and Altair takes over, and later remarks she’s done with the Templars and wants to travel. Altair says he’d like to accompany her and she later agrees to travel back to Masyaf with him. Their romance didn’t start until after she relocated with him, and it wasn’t much later that they married and had their two children. During this time, Maria also decided to join the Assassin Order, though not everyone accepted her.

The two had a happy life together, but Maria was always wary of Altair keeping the Apple of Eden and tolerated it for a while before voicing her disagreement. It wasn’t until the murder of their son Sef that things really went downhill, especially because their other child Malik was accused of committing the crime. In the end, Maria’s feelings about the Apple of Eden were correct, and she ultimately died because of Altair’s use of the Apple.

Assassin’s Creed Unity’s Arno and Elise have a similarly complicated relationship, though it’s not akin to Altair and Maria’s possible Stockholm Syndrome situation. As a child, Arno’s father, an Assassin, was killed and he ended up living with and being raised by Francois de la Serre, the Grand Master of a French faction of the Templar Order. Elise was Francois’ daughter and Arno’s dearest friend, and though they were raised together, they never viewed each other as siblings.

For some, it may be a little strange that two children who were raised in the same household and regarded as siblings would eventually turn their relationship romantic, but for others it’s not as issue. The main issue for their relationship was actually their class differences, which limited how often the two could see each other. Still, their love endured until the death of Francois de la Serre, which Arno unknowingly played a part in by not delivering a note to him in time. After this, Elise blamed Arno for her father’s death, with Arno blaming himself as well.

It wasn’t until much later that they rekindled their relationship, though they were on opposite ends of the field with Elise being a Templar and Arno having joined the Assassins. However, in Unity they ended up acknowledging their common goal of finding the person who killed Francois, as he meant a great deal to both of them. Where Arno was driven by a desire to right his wrong, Elise was more bloodthirsty and just wanted vengeance for her father.

Her vengeance would be her downfall, as she decided to pursue and fight the new Grand Master, Francois-Thomas Germain, by herself. Though she was technically winning their sword fight, Germain was wielding the Sword of Eden which became unstable and threw her backwards into a stone column. Arno rushed to her side, but it was too late – Elise was already gone.

Clearly both sets of couples had some interesting circumstances that put them in each other’s lives. Altair and Maria had no intention of becoming romantically involved at first but eventually fell in love with each other. Arno and Elise, on the other hand, had a classic “childhood friends turned lovers” trope, though they did have the added layer of literally being raised together. It seems both Assassin men had a penchant for Templar women, though Maria did denounce the organization before becoming romantically involved with Altair.

Both women were inadvertently killed by Pieces of Eden, though their lovers had differing levels of involvement in their deaths. As for individual characteristics, Altair and Arno both sought to right a wrong they either actually caused or blamed themselves for. Maria wasn’t as impulsive as Elise – where Maria died trying to intervene, Elise died because she didn’t listen to Arno and went after Germain alone.

Altair, Arno, Elise, and Maria all have their own individual personalities and motivations, but when it comes to their romances, it seems these duos have more in common than meets the eye.

Assassin’s Creed Unity is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.

MORE: Why The Next Assassin’s Creed Needs a Female Protagonist Only

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